Ex-RN Son Save
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Date: June 24, 1987 Story On the evening of June 24, 1987, in Knoxville, Tennessee, nineteen-year-old Trent Winston and his two buddies were intoxicated as they drove home from an evening on the town. The driver, Trent's friend, lost control of his car and skidded off the road. The car hit a tree, flipped over, and landed on its roof. The boys were trapped inside. In the front passenger seat, Trent was suspended by his seat belt upside down, his face crushed against the roof of the car. A neighbor heard the crash and called 911. A few blocks away, Donna Davis had just come home from work when she also heard the crash. She, a former emergency room and intensive care nurse, hopped back in her car and drove to the scene. She approached the wreckage and saw that the driver was unconscious. Another boy was screaming in the backseat. Donna took the driver's hand in hers and calmly spoke to him until he regained consciousness a few minutes later. "Oh, my buddy," the driver moaned, "my buddy next to me's hurt." "Are you saying there's another boy in this car?" Donna asked, surprised. She had seen only two kids in the car. Donna ran to the passenger side. It was too dark to see clearly inside, but she heard Trent gurgling as he gasped for air. She knew he was in serious trouble because the sound meant he didn't have a clear airway. "God, I feel sorry for this kid's parents," she thought to herself, "because it'll be a miracle if he lives." She reached inside, found his mouth, and did her best to open the airway that was filled with blood. "I was so scared he was going to die," recalls Donna. "My heart was pounding so hard because there were so many times when he quit breathing, and I kept talking to him and I'd say, look, you are too young to die. Just hang in there and we'll get you out of here." Within minutes, the Knoxville Volunteer Rescue Squad, led by Captain John Yu, arrived on the scene. Using the "jaws of life", Yu and his men pried open the car and extricated Trent's friends. But getting Trent out safely took longer because he was precariously situated. Meanwhile, Donna's eighteen-year-old son, Brett, had been returning home for the evening when he heard the sirens. Concerned because she was not home, he drove to the scene. He arrived to find her holding a crash victim's hand in the demolished car while rescuers worked to free him. When Trent was finally extricated from the wreckage, Donna stood back and watched rescuers load him onto a backboard and carry him to the awaiting ambulance. Suddenly, she froze. She had recognized the clothing on the boy she had helped save--he was her own son! "I thought this is a bad dream," Donna recalls. "This cannot be happening. Then the thought was, can we get him to the hospital alive? I told Brett, 'It's very bad, your brother may not live.'" Trent's friends were not seriously injured, but he was admitted to the hospital in a coma, with wrist, leg, and jaw fractures. Doctors were concerned whether he'd recover from the head injury he was sustained. Over the next twelve days, Donna, Brett, and Trent's father--with whom he lived--stayed by his side, talking to him and praying. On July 4th, he opened his eyes and then went back to sleep. Five and a half weeks after awakening from his coma, Trent was transferred to the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center, where he spent four months relearning how to walk and talk. Today, although he still struggles with his speech and movements, he is able to run, water-ski, and attend college. Trent credits Donna for motivating him to push hard in his recovery. She says that in her experience, patients who receive a lot of love and support from their loved ones always seem to fare better. "I'm proud of the job I'm doing," says Trent. "The way I think is there's nothing I can't do until I failed at it." He has learned an important lesson the hard way. "Drinking and driving don't mix," he says. "Drinking and driving kills. A lot of people have to learn that hard way. A lot of times, the hard way makes you dead." Category:1987 Category:Tennessee Category:Motor-Vehicle Accidents Category:DUI's